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- H. W. JONES, DECD.

F. E. IONES. ADMINISTRATOR. v APPARATUS FOR CRACKING PETROLEUM.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 13. l9l8. A Patented July 27 1920.

774 I7 172 J v conrzwsffi Z10 LLECTI/Y nToL WITH I 'YD/V/DU ES SOURCE or UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HARRY W. JONES, 0F INDEPENDENCE, KANSAS; FRANK E. JONES, ADMINISTRATOR 0F SAID HARRY W. JONES, DECEASED, ASSIGNOR TO THE KANSAS CITY GASOLINE COMPANY, .OF KANSAS CITY, FLANSAS, A CORPORATION OF KANSAS. 5 7

- LAPPARATUS FOR CRACKING PETROLEUM.

Patented July 27,1920.

Original application filed May 27, 1916, Serial No. 100,278. Divided and this application filed February i 13, 1918. Serial 'No; 216,937.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HARRY V. donate, a citizen of the United States, residing at Independence, in the county of Montgomery and State of Kansas, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for Cracking Petroleum, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawing.

My invention relates to the art of refining liquid hydrocarbons, and has for its object the production of improved apparatus particularly adapted for cracking petroleum oils and vapors, with safety, efficiency and economy. The present is a division of my copending application Serial No. 100,278, filed May 27, 1916.

Tn order to attain my object, I resort to subdivision of the apparatus, or rather a multiplication of units to form a battery or batteries, of which the principal elements are all connected in parallel, with suitable cut-offs and pressure valves so arranged that individual units or elements may be cut in and cut out with facility. Some of'the individual elements may for special reasons be included in series or in tandem with others, but the general principle of the present invention is to connect up the batteries in parallel, for reasons which will hereinafter fully appear.

matic drawing herewith, in which.80-84 are a series of oil tanks; 8589 are supply pipe-s therefrom; 91-95 control valves; 90 is a manifold receiving and blending the oils from the tanks or sources; 110 to 116'are compressors arranged in a battery, or in parallel, to handle quantities in small units,-subdivided in compression, united and redistributed for cracking, through the pressure manifold 138; 145 to 149 are small cracking coils, in separate furnaces; 140- 144 and 156-160 their intake pipes and valves; 150-154 and 161-165 their discharge pipes and valves; 155- the collecting manifold; 756 a relief air chamber to deaden compression shocks; 166- 168 discharge pipesto condensers 172 174, and 169171 valves therefor. From the condensers the usual discharge pipes are taken through valves to receiving tanks.

The tanks 80,81, 82, 83, 84 are storage and supply tanks of usual type, from which My invention is shown in the diagramthe oil is usually fed by gravity as de-v termined by manipulating valves 91, 92, 93, 94 and 95, respectively. The manifold 90 is of sufficient capacity to maintain a full supply without pressure for the battery of compressors 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, and 116; The valves 103 to 109 inclusive being individual to the compressors are used only in connection therewith. Each compressor is preferably a multiple stage high pressure pump of standard commercial type, which need not be specifically described herein, as its structure forms no part of the present invention. The valves 124 to 130 inclusive are for the purpose of taking any back pressure off the compressor valves when any particular unit compressoris stopped or cut out.

The manifold 138 receives its compression from all the compressors in service at a given tim and is constructed of steel to resist the maximum pressure due to the entire battery. Relief chambers 131 to 137 and 139, shown in diagram only and supposed to contain air or gas, renewed when necessary as well understood in the art, are for cushioning back pressures and to smooth the peaks of curves of variation in either pump or autogenous compression. 7

The separate cracking coils 145 to 149 in clusive, and their furnaces, are of the general type heretofore described by me in my parent application of which this is a division and in such patents as those to Albert R.

man, No. 1,328,468, both granted January 20, 1920, but it is to be understood that my invention is not limited to these, as coils or cracking retorts of any commercially equivalent form are contemplated.

The valves 161 to 165 inclusive are pressure retaining valves, as are also the valves 169 to 170, and the valves beyond the condensers 172to 174, so that the pressures in the cracking stills or 'retorts may be distributed and regulated at will. A relief chamber 756 is also shown, of the same general type as 139.

By this arrangement, the cracking is done in small units, with much greater tensile resistance of heir walls to pressure strains; and the compression is done by small units in a battery with similar resisting powers;

in addition to which the entire system is flexible,'not subject to shut down by the explosion or disabling of one unit, and yet giving an approximately uniform distribution of liquids and pressure.

Vhat I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent oi? the United States is:

A system for cracking petroleum oils, comprising a set of tanks in parallel, a manifold pipe therefor, a battery of compressors in small units, a suction pipe from said manifold to each compressor with a valve therein, a pressure manifold common to said compressors, a discharge pipe from each compressor to said manifold, a valve in each of said pipes, a subdivided set or battery of small cracking still units set in separate furnaces and all fed'from said pressure mani "fold, with separate valved connections thereto, a collecting manifold and separate valved discharge connections from the individual stills thereto and a condensing system connecting to sald collectlng manifold, and

adapted to deliver the condensed products to the usual receiving devices.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

HARRY W. JONES. 

